Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/286

 264 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap, part of his brigade in the fangs of the Eussian ' army, Lord Cardigan, when resolved to fall back, would have sought to turn his retrograde journey to a saving purpose by flying to Lord Lucan or General Scarlett, and entreating that some squad- rons might be pushed forward to extricate the remains of his brigade. Perhaps, though he has not so said, he exerted the utmost resources of his mind in the endeavour to see what, if anything, could be done for the salvation of his troops, then engulfed, as it were, in a hostile army, and was painfully driven to the conclusion that no rein- forcements could help them; but, so far as I know, he has not been accustomed to speak of any such mental efforts. Eesolved as he was from a sense of personal honour to execute to the letter, and without stint of life, whatever he might make out to be his clear duty, he yet never seemed to attain to such a height above the level of self as to feel what is called public care. And certainly his own account, if taken as being complete, would tend to make people think that, although, as might be expected, he was magnanimously regardless of his mere personal safety, yet in other respects, he much remembered himself, and all but forgot his brigade. It occurred to him, he says, at the time, that it was an anomalous thing for a General to be retreating in the isolated state to which he found himself reduced, and he therefore determined to move at a pace decorously slow. Whatever were his governing motives, and what- ever was his actual pace, he rode back alone to-